Part I
The Repression

Nunca Más (Never Again) - Report of Conadep  - 1984
 

Abductions in the presence of children

When a family which was to be chupada (A slang term, literally meaning ‘sucked up’, ‘swallowed’.) had children, the following methods were employed:

1.  The children were left with neighbours to be looked after until a family relative arrived.

2.  They were sent to children’s homes. These would hand them over to relatives or have them adopted.

3.  The children might themselves be abducted and eventually adopted by a member of the armed forces.

4.  They might be taken directly to the victim’s relatives, often in the same vehicle used to abduct their parents.

5.  They might be left abandoned in the place from which the group had kidnapped their parents.

6.  They could be taken to the secret detention centre, where they would witness the tortures inflicted on their parents, or might themselves be tortured in front of their parents. Many of these children are now among the lists of ’disappeared’.

In her statement on the disappearance of her son, Simón Antonio Riquelo (file No. 1743), his mother tells how he was abducted:

Between 11 and 11.30p.m. on 13 July 1976, 1 heard a loud knocking at the door of my home in Belgrano, Buenos Aires city. I was just finishing breast-feeding my son, Sim6n. The door was broken down, and between ten and fifteen men dressed in everyday clothes burst in. They identified themselves as members of the Argentine and Uruguayan Armies. One of the officers said his name was Major Gavazzo, of the Uruguayan Army. They found written material which showed I was working for the cause of freedom in Uruguay; they then began to torture and interrogate me. When they took me away, I asked what would happen to the boy. They told me not to worry, that he would stay with them, that they had no war against children. That was the last time I saw Simón or have had any news of him.